AMWU Wants Holden Disclosure On Closure by Today

The AMWU has give Holden a deadline by the end of shift today to confirm rumours that they will announce pulling out of Australia by 2016. Apparently the announcement was meant to be this week but will be held off until after Christmas.

Ian Macfarlane says he has spoken to Holden and they deny the reports. Apart from Ian, who is the Minister for Industry, there doesn’t seem to be much support in the Coalition for subsidising the industry anyway and there’s an internal divide on the subject. There’s also rumours that Holden will pull out anyway whether they get subsidies or not.

In July, the State Government laid out 5-year plans to re-invent manufacturing, accepting 42 recommendations, also taking advice from Professor Goran Roos, who also made a month long investigation into Holdens financial data and manufacturing work.

Even if the State Government were to act lightning fast, they need Federal support too in the way of conducive policy and it should have been done over 10 years ago, not at the 11th hour, but were here now, so better late than never they say.

Back to Professor Roos, he is an expert in manufacturing, says all countries subsidise their manufacturing industries in one way or another and has many strong opinions and ideas on the future of manufacturing in Australia.